Press Release

Millions to Pay Obamacare Fine

(Washington, D.C.) - With less than two weeks remaining to enroll under the second year of the Affordable Care Act (ACA, also known as Obamacare), research by the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center shows that between 3 and 6 million Americans will owe a penalty this year for failure to purchase health insurance. This penalty will be a minimum of $95, increasing to a minimum of $325 next year. Reports indicate that the Internal Revenue Service is seeking to hire thousands of new employees to enforce these fines. The news comes amidst growing concern about the law's provisions that effectively encourage employers to replace full-time workers with part-time employees. This poses a growing problem for Hispanics, who are disproportionately being forced to accept part-time work instead of full-time employment.

Daniel Garza, Executive Director of The LIBRE Initiative released the following statement:

"A critical test of whether a federal policy is working is whether it's delivering on promises and helping those it is intended to help. When it comes to the new health care law, that's simply not the case. Millions who believe they cannot afford insurance face fines - fines that Barack Obama forcefully argued against while a candidate for president. Additionally, workers and small businesses are being harmed by this new system - one whose costs far outweigh its benefits. Obamacare is a federal program that was sold to the American public as a populist remedy to provide health insurance coverage to all of America's uninsured, ease the rising costs of health care, improve quality of care and expand doctor and clinic choice. Instead, the programs implementation has worsened quality of care, limited choice, and increased prices - hurting the most vulnerable and those struggling from paycheck to paycheck.

Congress has begun to debate reform of the reform. Supporters of this broken law need to join in this debate constructively - rather than continuing to defend an unfair system out of partisan Interest ."